A review by wardenred
That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Kimberly Lemming

adventurous funny medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Clearly, the gods had favorites, and I wasn’t one of them.

Hmm. I guess I both do and don’t get the appeal.

In many ways, this is a really fun book. The banter made me laugh more than once. I’m one of the people who really likes the deliberate anachronisms in my high fantasy, so that style worked great for me. It was fun to see a fantasy setting that actively included African animals instead of the wildlife consisting of plain old wolves and bears. The early part in Cinnamon’s village was really lovely, with the festival, and the family times, and that general vibe of a fairly close-knit community that isn’t without its problems. Overall there’s this fun, quirky, tongue-in-cheek vibe that makes this quite an entertaining read, especially if you just go with the flow and don’t stop to overthink anything.

Unfortunately, I *am* an overthinker 😅 So I kept diving out of the fun quirkiness to poke at the plot and the characters, and quite often, nothing was as cozy or relaxing as the packaging and the reviews I’ve seen promised. I think that the author was aiming for a lighthearted adventure+romcom mix with fairly simple external conflicts, but instead of inventing appropriate conflicts for that goal, she simplified the characters’ reactions to the more typical high fantasy situations. As a result, the book at times came perilously close to actively making light of things like slavery or genocide. And it was really weird how in stride everyone took their entire world view shattering whenever they discovered the truth about the goddess and the demons. Generally, people took so much in stride that it gave me the impression no one cared about anything, even when they said otherwise and claimed that their motivations were to do good (like in Usha’s case).

Also, Fallon’s whole “if I dislike someone/they’re in my way, I feel like killing them” attitude was too over the top for me. I get the appeal of demonic characters like that, kinda, but I always want more nuance in that archetype, and when the trope is played as straight as it is here, it feels more frightening than attractive to me personally. Especially since I felt like Cinnamon gradually adopted more of his attitude even though early on she advocated for more peaceful solutions. But then later on she cheerfully rolled with some decisions that, if you look at them from other affected parties’ perspective, were pretty gross.

Overall, I think I can describe my impression as really liking the “how” and not at all enjoying the “what.” I would have enjoyed the book more if it leaned more fully into lightheartedness and stayed away from subject matters with heavy and serious implications.

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